Proposed law aims to protect janitors
Margarita Restrepo's husband lost his job as a janitor when the business where he worked changed hands and decided it wanted a different company to vacuum the floors and empty the trash. With just one hour's warning, he lost his job, his health insurance, and was left without any job prospects.
''I am one person among many, many people who now need health insurance due to a change in contractor," she told legislators yesterday through a translator.
State lawmakers unveiled legislation yesterday that would require companies that change hands to keep janitors from the building's existing cleaning company for 90 days, instead of immediately bringing in a new custodial crew.
The bill is designed to protect workers from a sudden loss of insurance and a job, a problem that is growing as outsourcing cleaning crews becomes common practice for businesses. The current atmosphere, advocates say, leaves many of the 55,820 janitors in Massachusetts, who make an average wage of $11.80 per hour, uneasy about their jobs.
''This is a bad characteristic of the way the labor market works for janitors," said state Representative Patricia D. Jehlen, a Somerville Democrat who is one of the bill's lead sponsors.
The bill is cosponsored by two other legislators and 33 other lawmakers have signed onto the bill, said Felix Arroyo Jr., the political director at Boston's Service Employees International Union Local 615, which is backing the legislation.
''Our members call in that there are contract 'flips' at least twice a month, and as it is right now, there's no way to protect them," Arroyo said. ''What we want is to give these janitors appropriate time to find another job, or for a new contractor to come in and see that they are good enough to continue."
The bill contains a few exceptions to provide flexibility for a contract change, Arroyo said. For example, if the quality of service from the janitors is poor, companies still have the freedom to lay off the janitors from the previous contract at a moment's notice. Also, if a new company wants to downsize the number of janitors to be more cost-effective, it can do so, but the bill stipulates that janitors should be kept on in order of seniority.
''This is about providing qualified, capable employees with some sort of job security in exchange for their high-level performance," said Senator Steven Tolman, a Brighton Democrat, who is also a lead sponsor for the bill.
SEIU modeled the bill after California's 2003 Layoff Protection Act, which requires companies to keep contracted labor for 60 days before providing a new labor source, Arroyo added. California's act is not specific to janitors.
If it is approved, the act could help the state save tax dollars spent on laid-off janitors who must seek welfare, food stamps, and unemployment compensation, Arroyo said. 